Windows software on an Apple

The support rep at UPS told me today that people are running the Worldship program on Macs with the new intel processors. This is huge for me. Can anybody comment on running windows applications on the new Mac OSX and desktop computers?

Well it has always been possible to run windows software on mac using virtualisation. Recently however it has received a massive speed boost since the instructions no longer need to be translated from x86 to powerpc to run.

Pretty much every mac user I know has some form of virtualisation software installed.

I've seen two approaches. One is called Boot Camp which is a dual boot arrangement and the other is called Parallels which is a Windows emulator for MAC OSX allowing Mac and Windows software to run together on Intel based Macs. I was hoping the Mac OS itself would run Windows software. What I wanted to do was get away from Windows entirely and not even have it resident on the computer. I do not want to move to Vista in the future and I'm trying to plan ahead. It isn't easy to get away from Windows is it?

fmw if Parallels is the one I am thinking of it is by far the most ideal virtualisation program for mac. I'm just double checking with a colleague who showed me that though.

The OS itself will never actually run windows software. The hardware really plays one of the smallest parts in what runs where. Just look at the NetBSD project which runs on everything from xboxes to mini computers powered by potatoes (it works, i kid not i've even logged into said machine). Mac's move to the intel platform does not change the fact that it is based on a Unix kernel and thus will run code from mac, linux, and BSD natively without virtualisation.